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How To Re-Index Your Torsion Bars


88pathoffroad
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Thanks Simon! Ill be attempting this in a few weeks after replacing the front end parts that are bad. My patty looks exactly like the one in silvertons pic. Front end slammed!

At the moment, Im tackling the exhaust studs. I finally got tired of listening to tick,tick,tick!! Im ready for a quiet ride!!

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  • 1 month later...

Heres a little tip, when you are marking the bar location with paint, mark the front location also. my bars were really seized in the anchors so i used a bottle jack against the frame to push on the anchor... and the bar came out of the front anchor!! and i didnt have the front marked... *sigh* :headwall:

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I highly recommend an automatic centerpunch for making clocking/alignment marks. I've wiped/scraped off marker and paint before. It's easy to do, especially if you are fighting with a component. You get it out, go to reassemble, look around for the mark and it usually starts like this... "Awww Sheit!!!"

 

B

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  • 3 weeks later...

Great info but pics are dead. Can somebody please re upload the pics? I can't picture how to get those anchors out without dropping the crossmember. Pics would help

there are pictures at the top of page 3. mine were so seized i had to take off the front anchors and drop the crossmember, a total PITA...

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  • 3 months later...
  • 3 months later...

glad to see that someone else pointed out marking the front torsion bar points. here is my method of rotating the splines from the front of the torsion bar.

 

i went about it differently to most. Being a mechanic, i already knew what i was tackling. after jacking the car up and putting it on jack stands, i drowned everything in WD-40 to begin with, undid the rear torsion bar adjusters and removed them completely, then removed the rear circlips. you will find the torsion bar is pushed up against the crossmember at the rear. I put my trolley jack under the lower control arm and lifted until the car was about to come off the jack stand. if you have a look at the torsion bar in the crossmember now, it wont be wedged anymore. I then levered the torsion bar anchor towards the rear of the vehicle whilst hitting the front of the torsion bar with a mallot to free it from the lower control arms. rotated it a few splines, and put it all back together.

 

James.

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  • 2 months later...

Great write up. One question though, I was underneath checking out what I had to work with, and noticed that the ends aren't even. One T bar has its back end outside of the crossmember (like the OP), the other has its end tucked inside. Is something worn out, or was some mechanic sloppy? Or are the adjuster bolts just out of whack? (Maybe the previous owner had a go?) Or is this normal/unimportant?

 

Driver's side:

P1010006-15.jpg

 

Passenger's side:

P1010005-6.jpg

Edited by Slartibartfast
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Do both of them still have their C-clips? Id say its just the T-bars arent seated correctly with the mount the bars go into.. maybe after you take it apart(I had to use a crap ton of PB Blaster to get mine to come out of the mounts) you will be able to more easily adjust it so the ends sit matched up.

 

Otherwise 'I' dont think it is a big deal for them to be exactly the same in the length they are protruding.

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I believe there is a notch in the round part that the crossmember lip is supposed to sit in. So your driver's side might not be quite right. Should be able to tell better when you get it apart. Make sure you have the c clips, but I think they really prevent everything from going too far back, not too far forward. It can't fall out in the forward direction at least :)

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okay i read the instuctions twicce and skimmed threw the comments and was wondering if you take out the t bars or just the anchor part? looking at a one of the pics it looks hard to get the anchor out of the crossmember just wondering cause im might re-index mine soon

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okay i read the instuctions twicce and skimmed threw the comments and was wondering if you take out the t bars or just the anchor part? looking at a one of the pics it looks hard to get the anchor out of the crossmember just wondering cause im might re-index mine soon

 

The description here seems to be to remove the anchor off the back of the t-bar. Presumably you could accomplish the same thing by pulling the t-bar and anchor assembly out of the front torque arm and putting it back in after rotating as appropriate.

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  • 8 months later...

I have read this thread and it is a great write up and cant wait to do mine this weekend. But after talking to a buddy and looking under my pathy i dont see how the anchors come off the t-bar. I trust you guys and im not doubting anyone but it looks to me the t-bars are to far into the anchors to have enuff room to slide off and turn. And this can all be done with out dropping the crossmember? Just want to make sure before this weekend

 

Thanks for the writeup :aok:

 

Ryan

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I reindex the front mount, seems a bit eaiser. Just dial down the torsion bar bolt so its as low as it will drop. Remove the front hangers and turn the bar down as far as it will go with the nuts still on the adjuster bolt. Hold the bar up and rotate the front hanger so it lines up with the lower control arm. Slide it in, bolt it back up and readjust. I did my rig and MrJims rig this way. Bada Bing, bada boom, your done.

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  • 5 months later...

just curious, assuming everything goes according to plan, how long would you allocate in a day to do this?

 

depends on how easily the torsion bars come out of the lower control arms, if they come right out and the rear adjusters come right off, a few hours.

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how much lift would you expect to get on a stock 95 and just cranked the bars and not reindex them?

 

you don't automatically have to re-index the bars when you crank them. Just if you run out of adjustment and still have room between the UCA and the bump stop than you can re-index the bars so you can get more adjustment out of them.

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  • 10 months later...

Thanks 88! Re-indexed the Tbars in less than an hour with the write up you made. Used some marking paint and a small artists paint brush to mark the anchor/bar spline location but counting those tiny splines was a pain so I used calipers to make sure I got the same preload. I think the hardest part was getting the C clips back on it tight quarters... Thanks again!

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I'm going to add my 3 cents worth here. I've had my transmission out 3 times, so that means I've had to reset my torsion bars at least 3 times. After trying all the match marking and stuff as described the first time, I realized it wasn't much of a benefit. What matters is the ride height (also evidenced by the angle of the lower control arm). As long as this is the same (side to side) you are pretty much guaranteed that the torsion bars are loaded like they need be. However there is a catch. In the original write up in step 11 it says "until the anchor is mostly sucked up into the crossmember" If you look at Slartibartfast's post (12 posts before this one) you see a picture of his Driver's side rear anchor. The anchor is some what protruding below the cross-member. While, this may be okay from a torsion bar preload standpoint ( assume all is level side-to-side) it can be a problem when off-roading if you drag the bottom of the rig over rocks or other solid objects. The protrusion of the anchor/bolt head will hit first and get bent/damaged. Experience has taught me this; therefore when you are done adjusting you really want these tucked up fully in the cross-member. If you don't wheel, or if you only wheel in sand/mud this probably will never be a problem, but if you like rocks then you gonna want to make sure the anchors are tucked. So how do I get them there? Trial and error with a bit of experience. With the truck up on jackstands, I'll set the two rear anchors where I think they need to be (rotation angle on torsion bar) and tighten up the anchor bolts till I have pretty good preload on the bars. Then I drop the truck, bounce the suspension and see where my ride height is at. I'll look how much more I have to go to get the anchors tucked compared to where I am in the travel of the control arms (i.e. ride height). If my height is pretty close, but I still have a ways to go to get the anchors tucked I lift the truck again, unload everything, rotate the anchors a spline or two (judgement call), re-tighten anchor bolts, drop the truck, bounce the suspension, and re-check everything. Repeat as necessary.

 

Will they be tucked the same amount. Not necessarily. My passenger side is a little more tucked then the driver's side (to get vehicle level side to side). Honestly, i think this is due to the passenger side of the vehicle being heavier; therefore a little more preload is needed to get it to the level point. How do I know the passenger side is heavier? When I jack dead center the driver side comes up first and it tilts passenger side. I have to place my jack a little passenger side of center to get it to come up evenly. This probably due to battery and AC components being more to that side??? Maybe.

Edited by Precise1
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  • 4 weeks later...

I'd like to get around 2" out of a torsion bar crank, I have no idea yet if I'll need to re-index, but my question is if I am able to get 2" of lift from cranking the t-bars, is this going to do damage long term to my alignment, tires and cv joints and shafts? Is this really okay to do? I've talked to my mechanic and a specialist that he referred me to and they're both waving their arms at me in panic telling me not to do this. So are they freaked out just because they're unfamiliar with our trucks or what's the deal?

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You need to look at the torsion bar adjuster and see how far it is sitting below the cross member, if the adjuster on either side is tucked up into the cross member than you will have to re-index the bars. If the adjusters are sitting like this / \ than you will have room to adjust them more.

 

Anytime you adjust the torsion bars you should get an alignment, unless you have crappy tires and don't care.

 

The other problem with raising the front of these trucks is the higher you go the less travel the suspension will have to move downward. Look at the space between the bottom of the upper control arm and the rubber bumpstop under it, if the upper control arm is already sitting on the bumpstop you have the front end cranked too high. The less space between the upper control arm and the bumpstop the less downward travel the suspension will have to move. You can replace the bumpstops with low profile ones available from Energy Suspension as well as other companies.

 

Also the higher you make the front the stiffer the truck will ride. Aftermarket torsion bars are good because they tend to hold the "cranked in" lift longer compared to stock, the amount the front end settles will also depend on how much you drive the truck and how much you go 4 wheeling.

Edited by ahardb0dy
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